From the Beginning to Christ

 After I left that errant house church, I had to relearn pretty much everything I knew about God and the Bible. One of those concepts which amazed me was that the Bible is one long story of redemption. 

This video from The Gospel Project demonstrates this well.

We realize, once the blinders are taken off our spiritual eyes, that Scripture is all about God's awesome plan of salvation. Paul made that clear in 1 Corinthians 15:45 (Bible in Basic English). "And so it is said, 'The first man Adam was a living soul. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit.'"

Reading through Genesis, we see how humanity through Adam fell. God established that the seed of the woman, meaning one of Eve's descendants, would have victory over Satan. This promise was passed down, generation to generation, giving to the children of Abraham hope whenever a boy child was born. As a consequence, we have genealogies in the Bible.

In the Old Testament, Christ was referred to in prophecy as The Branch. One of those prophesies is Jeremiah 33:14 and 15 (BBE). "'See, the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'when I will give effect to the good word which I have said about the people of Israel and the people of Judah. In those days and at that time, I will let a Branch of righteousness come up for David; and he will be a judge in righteousness in the land.'"

Zechariah 3:8 (BBE) also mentions Christ as coming like a servant. "Give ear now, O Joshua, the high priest, you and your friends who are seated before you; for these are men who are a sign: for see, I will let my servant the Branch be seen."

Jesus was the ultimate servant, obeying the Father to the end. Philippians 2:5-8 (BBE) explains, "Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, To whom, though himself in the form of God, it did not seem that to take for oneself was to be like God; But he made himself as nothing, taking the form of a servant, being made like men; And being seen in form as a man, he took the lowest place, and let himself be put to death, even the death of the cross."

We who trust in Christ know how the story ends. When everything is given over to our Master, he'll give himself to the Father that all will be in all. We'll have the rest of eternity to enjoy everything that the Father has for us.

If our Lord doesn't return by Saturday, I plan on posting about Israel and a man whose lover runs around with other men.

What is Sin Anyway?

In all of these posts, I've mentioned sin as thecause of our downfall. But what is sin anyway? Put simply, sin is rebellion against our maker.

It all started, as I pointed out last time, with Satan talking Adam and Eve into disobeying God's specific command not to eat of the tree in the centre of the garden of Eden. They had hundreds or maybe thousands of trees from which they could pick fruit, yet they couldn't resist picking from the only forbidden tree.

Since that fateful day, humanity and creation have suffered the ravages of Adam's disobedience. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:18-23 (BBE), "I am of the opinion that there is no comparison between the pain of this present time and the glory which we will see in the future. For the strong desire of every living thing is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God. For every living thing was put under the power of change, not by its desire, but by him who made it so, in hope That all living things will be made free from the power of death and will have a part with the free children of God in glory. For we are conscious that all living things are weeping and sorrowing in pain together till now. And not only so, but we who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we have sorrow in our minds, waiting for the time when we will take our place as sons, that is, the salvation of our bodies."

Paul also likened Christ to a final Adam, being that he was the first to rise from the dead in a new kind of body. Look at what 1 Corinthians 15:45 (KJV) says. "And so it is written, 'The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.'"

Jesus rose with a physical body but he will likewise change our old bodies to ones fit for God's glory. Like formatting a hard drive and installing a clean copy of an operating system on it, we will be free from the virus of sin throughout eternity.

I'll be delving deeply into this topic of resurrection in my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? My heart breaks when I hear professing Christians claim things which are biblically false. This is why I want to show my believing friends the truth from the Bible, not opinions of others and man-made customs.

Why Does God Hold Me Guilty of Adam and Eve's Sin?

Because I wrote in my previous post that one's salvation doesn't depend on the righteousness of one's parents and that we all are responsible for our eternal destiny, why are we punished as a result of what Adam and Eve did? It seems unfair that we have to suffer for the gullibility of our race's progenitors.

I liken our fallen nature to a corrupted operating system. The writer of the program wrote it perfectly but a hacker inserted bad code into it. Every copy of that program contains the virus and it passes on from one copy to the next.

So it is with sin. Adam was responsible as the head of humanity but he went along with Eve in disobeying God's only commandment to them. Consequently, Satan's rebellion is an integral part of our characters. As we have children and grandchildren, this virus of disobedience transfers itself to our offspring.

But God didn't abandon us in our fallen condition. Look at what Genesis 3:15 (KJV) says. "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This shows that a saviour will come from a woman who will defeat Satan, though it will cost him his life.

This, by the way, is why Christmas and Easter are such special occasions to those of us who love and obey Christ. He fulfilled all the prophecies regarding his birth, life, death, and resurrection.

The sin virus is still in those who believe in Christ but it's being dealt with by the antivirus program of sanctification. Check out what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:45 (KJV). "And so it is written, 'The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.'" So are all of those folks who place their trust made eternally alive, though the sin virus trips us up at times.

I'll be writing more about this in my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? Far too many people assume that their parents' faith  somehow makes them God's children. I hope Christ will rescue some readers through my writing.